Sean C. Morgan
Of The New Era
Department of Forestry firefighters Monday were still battling two blazes started by a thunderstorm on Aug. 7.
The fires, named Rocky Top Five and Boulder Creek, are located approximately 20 miles up Quartzville Road, east of the roadway and creek. Both are on Bureau of Land Management forestland.
Rocky Top had approximately 30 acres burned, and Boulder Creek had approximately 70 acres burned Monday afternoon, Forest Protection Supervisor Jim Basting said. The fires are “contained but not controlled.”
The storm started 23 fires on ODF-protected lands, Basting said. Of those, only the Rocky Top and Boulder Creek fires remained active Monday.
These are probably the biggest fires the local ODF unit has fought since the Calapooia Fire in May 1987, Basting said.
“We were able to catch them all but two,” Basting said. Several of them were in roadless areas where crews had to hike in a half mile or more to reach the fire.
In some cases, it took “over an hour, it was so steep on a couple,” Forest Officer Craig Wilson said. “I think there were only four or five fires we didn’t get to until Tuesday.”
The Boulder Creek fire had burned land almost to Boulder Creek Road in several places, and at least one spot fire had burned at Quartzville Road, Wilson said
Boulder Creek has been among the most difficult fires to fight, Basting said. It is so steep that burning material rolls downhill and starts burning back up the slope.
Total, ODF has more than 200 persons working on the fires, Basting said. That includes a team from the BLM and private companies providing timber cutters and equipment. The firefighters are camping out at Foster School, where School District 55 is providing food.
Some of the other, smaller fires extinguished last week were also on land managed by Cascade Timber Consulting and Seneca Jones. Most of those fires were three acres or smaller.
Anticipated cloud cover and cooler temperatures should help with the fires, Basting said, but he did not know if they would be out by next week.
Sweet Home Ranger District had seven fires from the thunder storm, Ranger Mike Rassbach said Thursday. One of them popped up Thursday afternoon in the Menagerie Wilderness, about one mile north of the old Mountain House.
All of the fires except the Menagerie fire and another on the Middle Santiam Wilderness were in good shape Monday, Rassbach said. The Sweet Home Ranger District’s largest fire, burning about three acres, was near Parrish Lake on the east side of the district. The rest were less than a quarter acre.
Regulated use remains in effect on ODF-protected lands, limiting times people are allowed to use powered equipment, campfires and smoking. Regulated use applies outside of the city limits.
Local residents are allowed to cut regularly maintained lawns, Basting said. They are not permitted to mow fields of tall, dead grass after 1 p.m.
The regulated use also does not make agricultural activities stop, Basting said.